Rhodes Old Town: Grand Master's Palace, Street of the Knights and Walls – Guided or On Your Own?
Updated October 8, 2026 · 6 min read
The short answer: walk the Old Town on your own, and pay only for the part that needs explaining. The streets, the walls and the harbour cost nothing. What you can book is the inside of the Grand Master’s Palace, a guide who tells you what you are looking at, or a vehicle that covers more ground in the heat. These are three different purchases, and none of them replaces the others.
What you are actually walking into
The medieval town of Rhodes is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the guided walks on the booking pages describe it as a place of narrow streets, a Jewish Quarter, Ippokratous Square, the Street of the Knights, the Palace of the Grand Master, the Archaeological Museum and the fortifications. Some of the vehicle tours below also follow the outside of the walls and the dry moat, which is a different view from the one you get inside the gates.
You do not need a ticket to wander. You need one for the palace and the museum, and that is where the choices start.
Inside the palace: the e-ticket
The Grand Master’s Palace e-ticket with audio tour costs €26 per person and has 4.2 stars from 340 reviews. It gives you the entry ticket and a self-guided audio tour on your phone, in English, Spanish, German, Italian and French. Another palace ticket with its own audio tour is also €26 and has 4 stars from 332 reviews.
Read the small print before you book. The ticket is non-refundable. You book per device, not per person, so a couple sharing one phone needs one booking, and the audio tour needs a fairly recent phone with 100 to 150 MB free. The provider sends the ticket in a separate email within 24 hours. Free and reduced tickets can only be bought at the booth on site.
The reviews are honest about the limits. One visitor found the official ticket expensive for what is, in their words, a small place overall, though the audio guide made it good value. Another loved the architecture but regretted that not all the rooms were open. A third reviewer found the queue short and wished they had bought at the door instead.
A guide: the three-hour walk
The Old Town walking tour with a guide is €60.80 per person, takes 3 hours and has 4.8 stars from 292 reviews. It is a small group with an English-speaking guide, and the meeting point is an office near Mandraki Harbour with check-in from about 9:30 in the morning. Reviewers mention the stories, the slow pace and the stops in the shade, plus a break at a traditional café for Greek tea and baklava.
The palace and the Archaeological Museum are optional extras on this tour, not part of the price. The operator lists €20 for the palace and €10 for the museum on its page, and you can sit those out for a coffee instead. Count them in if you plan to go inside, and treat the figures as the operator’s own.
For a first visit, this is the one that changes what you see. The streets are easy to walk and hard to read: without someone telling you which building was the hospital of the Knights and which is a mosque, you notice the stone and miss the story.
Covering more ground: bike, Trikke, Segway
Three small-group vehicle tours cover the Old Town and the harbour area quickly. None goes inside the palace, which appears as a photo stop.
The Old Town e-bike tour is €36.66, 138 minutes, 4.9 stars from 459 reviews, with a maximum of 6 people. You get a welcome drink, a safety briefing and a short test ride. The route follows the fortress walls and the dry moat, passes the Mandraki windmills and Saint Nicholas fortress, and ends on Monte Smith. The evening departure finishes at a sunset spot.
The Trikke tour of the new and medieval city is €38.40, 2 hours, 5 stars from 260 reviews, also capped at 6. The listing itself calls it a non-historical tour: a guide, photo stops and about 45 minutes in the Old Town. It is not suitable for children under 12, pregnant women, people with mobility impairments, wheelchair users or anyone over 110 kg.
The night Segway ride through the medieval city is €52, 2 hours, with a maximum of 8. It has 5 stars, but from only 21 reviews, so take the rating lightly. It stops at the Street of the Knights and the palace, and the list of people it is not suitable for includes pregnant women, people with mobility impairments and anyone over 120 kg. Basic fitness is expected.
Other ways in
If you want a sense of the layout first, the hop-on hop-off bus lists the Old Town, Mandraki Harbour and Monte Smith among its stops with audio commentary, for €20 and 4 stars from 428 reviews. For a private hour with a guide and the ticket included, there is a private tour of the Grand Master’s Palace at €130, rated 5 stars from 19 reviews.
Staying near Lindos or in the south-east? The Old Town trip from Lindos with free time costs €15 for 8.5 to 10.5 hours, with 4.3 stars from 204 reviews. It is a transfer with free time, not a tour. The other options are collected on the Rhodes Old Town tours page.
The honest part
The Old Town is cobbled, and you will walk more than you expect. Wear shoes you do not mind scuffing, carry water, and go early or late rather than at midday. The vehicle tours are one answer to heat, but the Trikke and Segway listings both name people with mobility impairments as not suited.
A guide is not essential. If you like reading as you go, the audio e-ticket plus your own wandering gives you the inside of the palace for €26 and the rest for nothing. What you lose is the context outside the palace, where most of the Old Town actually is.
Which one, for whom
| Option | Time | From | Rating | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palace e-ticket with audio | 50 minutes to a day | €26 | 4.2 (340) | going inside on your own, with a phone and headphones |
| Walking tour with guide | 3 hours | €60.80 | 4.8 (292) | a first visit, history and stories |
| Old Town e-bike tour | 138 minutes | €36.66 | 4.9 (459) | covering the walls and harbour, with a sunset option |
| Trikke tour | 2 hours | €38.40 | 5.0 (260) | photos and fun, not history |
| Night Segway ride | 2 hours | €52 | 5.0 (21) | an evening ride, few reviews |
For most people we would book the guided walk. It is one of the best-rated options and the one that explains the place, it takes a morning, and you can decide on the day whether the palace is worth the extra €20. If you only want to see inside, buy the e-ticket and walk the rest yourself. The island’s other big historic day out is compared in Lindos from Rhodes, and the climb itself is covered in Lindos Acropolis tickets, the climb and the heat.
